I recently binged on some daytime T.V., but before the usual guilt ensued I had the good fortune to witness a human oddity I hadn’t seen before (naively and unforgivably, I thought I had seen them all). A certain Tele-psychologist with a distinct Southern drawl and reassuring beady eyes was attending to the confessions of a woman who identified herself as a cat. Not a cat-lady. A bona-fide cat. Thankfully caught on tape for posterity, she wore what looked like a custom-fitted, faux-fur cat suit, slept in a kennel (bit of identity confusion there), and to my astonishment, gorged on cat food from out of a bowl marked with her cat pseudonym. An obvious health hazard. But having arrived at a common standstill concerning my attempts to comprehend human coping mechanisms, I began thinking: what about those times I fed pets human food? Seemed like a fairly common practice. Turns out it’s not such a good idea. Human food has a proven damaging effect on pet health.

Last week we featured the travails of Derby the Dog, a Massachusetts pooch who was born with two deformed front legs yet found hope in breakthrough 3D prosthetic technology which allowed him to frolic and scamper in his hometown parks with virtually the same ease as all the other able-bodied dogs. We mentioned that it was only a matter of time before the technology would make another appearance and relieve the ailments of a fellow-suffering animal, reminding us once again of how biology is now more than ever dependent on the intervention of scientific knowledge. This week we have the equally edifying story of Brutus the Rottweiler from Denver, Colorado, who, in contrast to his namesake, was not the perpetrator but the victim of betrayal. However with the good will of perfect strangers who did their suburb name “Loveland” proud, Brutus found himself with wholly new body parts and an added pop in his step.

It's been 50 long years since Rufus Thomas' hit Walking the Dog showed the music world it could move beyond mushy love songs and find melodic inspiration from man's best friend. Well now man's best friend is giving us a tip or two on how to walk the walk.

The Dugong, unceremoniously referred to as a “sea cow” on the odd occasion, is one of Australia’s more peculiar creatures, in a vast, boundless nation populated by peculiar creatures. It is one of the more colourful characters of the aquatic deep, looking as it does like a castaway elephant seal with albinism. Yet its graceful passage through our oceans has made it somewhat of a favourite amongst animal lovers, serving as an exemplar of marine equanimity, of a way of sharing the ocean that might otherwise be found wanting in our hectic rush to conquer it with jet skis.

Today we take a look at the ever adorable golden retriever. They are certainly one of the most popular dogs around as they are known to be playful, pretty, smart and good around people. They’re extremely active dogs, something that can be both incredibly rewarding and unrewarding. They take a long time to lose their puppy playfulness, usually about 3-4 years. But most keep aspects of their youthful behaviour into the later years of their lives.